Astronomers bewildered by massive star disappearing under their eyes
The star may have directly collapsed as a black hole, without going supernova which is almost unprecedented. This illustration shows what the luminous blue variable star in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy could have looked like before its mysterious disappearance. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada. Researchers affiliated with European Southern Observatory (ESO) have caught a massive star in the midst of a disappearing act. Typically, stars in its class end their life cycle with a bang, in a supernova — the most powerful explosion in the universe. However, the star disappeared without a trace, perhaps directly collapsing into a black hole, with important consequences for astronomy. Astronomers have been tracking the luminous blue variable star located in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy since 2001. The extremely massive star was of particular interest because scientists still don’t know much about how such objects behave towards the end of their lifetimes, especially in metal-poor environments such as the Kinman D...
